After over a decade of dedicated and impactful work at Northwestern University, Senior Instructional Learning & Accessibility Specialist is bringing her knowledge and skills in accessibility improvements to the University of Michigan, where she’ll continue to give all learners access to invaluable education pathways.
“After 11 years, Christine is very much part of the fabric of Distance Learning,” said Daniel Murphy, Director of Online Learning Technologies for the Distance Learning team at Northwestern’s School of Professional Studies (SPS). “Through her hard work, insights, and commitment to excellence for students, staff, and faculty, she has done much to shape our culture and processes. Given her considerable personal and professional commitment to making course materials accessible for all learners, this is a great next step for her.”
Though Christine has always been passionate about supporting higher education, she had a much different pathway in mind when she first joined Distance Learning in 2014 as a Content Specialist.
“At the time, I was really interested in copy editing, as that was the direction I hoped to go in my career, and the original position was primarily a copy-editing job,” she recalled.
However, Christine’s role drastically transformed as online learning became increasingly relevant and popular nationwide, leading to a stronger focus on accessibility. After learning about accessibility from scratch through personal research, she helped establish a thorough quality rubric for accessibility standards, which has since been integrated as a fundamental component for Distance Learning’s courses. That was just the start of many new programs and applications she brought to Northwestern’s accessibility.
“As I started learning more about accessibility, I realized this paired nicely with my interest in copy editing,” she said. “Both require being detail-oriented and helping the writer present the best version of their ideas in their own voice. More than that, I find education to be meaningful; I believe that everyone who wants education at any degree should be able to pursue it.”
In addition to her other responsibilities, Christine has become a teacher, presenting at national and regional conferences, TEACHx, and SPS and Northwestern workshops, as well as conducting faculty training for numerous schools. After taking an online course to learn more about digital accessibility ― only to be disappointed by how they failed to apply those same standards to their own course content ― she decided to share her own knowledge with others in turn, starting by redesigning a similar certificate program for the University of Illinois Springfield.
“For a long time, I didn’t enjoy that kind of training [presenting], but once I started doing it for accessibility, that all changed,” she said. “Helping people learn about accessibility means that they will create courses, websites, and other content that is better for more people. That makes the training feel more a lot more valuable and fulfilling.”
In particular, Christine fondly remembers attending the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) National Conference, when she really felt her new direction of work click for her.
“It was a phenomenal experience being around a few hundred other people who were doing this kind of work, and hearing about their experiences, their successes, and new things they were trying out,” she said. “That was the point where I thought, ‘This is what I want to do for my career.’ It just felt very right.”
At the University of Michigan, Christine will join a digital accessibility team within the IT Department, providing support to the whole institution. Michigan has been a longtime leader in digital accessibility, and she looks forward to not only sharing her experience in coursework accessibility but also exploring new avenues such as website design.
“Accessibility has really become my career calling – that is what has given me the most fulfilment in my work,” Christine said. “And I’m really looking forward to continuing to develop those skills, to learn more, and to share what I experienced with other people as I go forward.”